


Here Come the Drums

by noplacespecial



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: Christmas, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-21
Updated: 2008-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-25 04:23:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1631324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noplacespecial/pseuds/noplacespecial
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes the holidays just suck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here Come the Drums

**Author's Note:**

> Thiswasn't the story that I intended on writing. Life and my own ridiculous procrastinator tendencies kind of forced me to rearrange it a bit, so I feel like parts of it don't, quiteconnect. But rest assured, I am still working on it, and will let you know when a more polished version is up. I hope you enjoy this in the meantime - I was thrown for a loop getting a gen assignment, as romance is more my genre.
> 
> Written for Moss

 

 

_Kids, the holidays are a wonderful time of year. From November to February, everyone's happy and honest with each other, everything's sparkling with decorations and lights, and there's delicious food on every table. People spend months planning the perfect holiday season - the menu, the decor, the guest list, the activities. Everything is pre-set, down to the last minute. But sometimes, despite all of your best efforts and intentions, the holidays just **suck**._

It started that year on Thanksgiving. Your Uncle Marshall and Aunt Lily got in a fight about whether they wanted to keep their families' traditions or start their own. Aunt Robin still didn't have a job, and went back home to Canada right before Christmas. And I had spent so much time earlier that year thinking about my first Christmas with Stella, as a married man, that I just wasn't ready to face it alone, so I sat in my apartment and ate an entire fruitcake. And your Uncle Barney jetted off to Spain rather than admit how much he wanted to spend the holidays with his friends. It seemed like that New Year's Eve was destined to follow in the footsteps of the disastrous holidays before it. But then suddenly, something happened. Lily and Marshall call it a Christmas miracle, Robin calls it good timing... and I just like to call it friendship.

**3 days to New Year's**

Robin's phone beeps as she's on her way up the stairs to her childhood bedroom. She had considered getting a hotel, but had ultimately decided that she didn't want to pay the money. Clearly, that had been the wrong decision, because living here again, under her father's rules, made her feel like she had never left high school. She pulled her cell from her purse, grateful for the distraction.

Barney's name flashed across the screen. Robin groaned. This could not possibly end well.

_Get your ass back to New York where you belong, Scherbatsky. Be at Madison Square Garden, 8 pm, New Year's Eve. I'm not taking no for an answer._

The message was so long that it took up two texts, but Barney absolutely refused to use I.M. abbreviations, which was simultaneously comforting and obnoxious. Robin considered the words, cocking her head to the side as she tried to figure out whether this was something worthwhile, or one of his usual ploys.

"R.J.!" her father bellowed from downstairs. "Come with me to the driving range and we'll work on your swing!"

 _Oh, screw it._ Robin began tossing clothes in her suitcase with one hand, using the other to look up flights on her phone. New York it was, then.

**2 days to New Year's**

"Babe, did you just get a really weird text from Barney?" Marshall asked, coming out of the kitchen. Lily frowned and rummaged through her purse to find her cell, which was still in silent mode from work that morning. She read it through.

_Even you two can't be so boring that you have better New Year's plans than this. Madison Square Garden, 8 pm. Don't be late._

"Not interested," she said, snapping the phone shut again and tossing it back into her bag. She looked over at Marshall, who appeared to actually be considering the idea. "No," she said firmly. "Absolutely not. We are not cancelling on Mark and Casey for one of Barney's wild goose chases." Marshall looked dejected. "What happened the last time we listened to Barney?" she reminded him. Marshall shrugged.

"Ted licked the Liberty Bell, you did the Naked Woman, I got a job, and we got a bunch of awesome wedding presents?" Lily glared.

"You got a job you hate, you beat someone up, and he sold out your best friend to a bunch of Swedish guys with a ridiculous fire-breathing office building," she reminded him.

"A ridiculously _awesome_ fire-breathing office building," Marshall sulked. Lily bit her lip. Yeah, okay, it was pretty cool. Impractical, but cool.

"If nothing else...we do have fun with him, don't we?" she admitted. Marshall nodded coaxingly. " _Okay_ ," she relented. "If you want to go chase Barney around New York for the night, I'll come with you. But if it sucks, you're having a miraculous recovery from your stomach flu and we're going right back to Mark and Casey's. Agreed?" Marshall kissed her soundly on the lips.

"You are the best wife _ever_ ," he crowed.

**1.5 days to New Year's**

"Theodore. You finally answered the phone."

"Yeah, because you've been calling every ten minutes and I get too many work calls to shut my phone off. What do you want?"

"You'd know what I want if you'd read any of the dozen text messages I've sent you. God, Ted, I bet you didn't even open my e-vite, did you?"

"No, Barney, I didn't. Because I don't really care what it says. I just want some space. Why does nobody seem to get that?"

"Ted, do you really need me to spell it out for you? We're your _friends_. We're not going to let you sit there and wallow and eat three loaves of your mom's disgusting fruitcake just because you're too chickenshit to get out of the house and enjoy yourself."

"...It was two loaves."

_(Actually kids, it was four and a half, but who's counting?)_

"The people that care the most about you are going to be outside of Madison Square Garden on the 31st of December at exactly 8:00 at night. I mean, I'm gonna be there too, but obviously none of that mushy stuff applies to me. So. Come or don't come. I don't care. But Marshall, Lily, and Robin will probably be pretty pissed if you don't show up. Good day, sir."

"Barney-"

"I said good day!"

**4 hours to midnight**

"Barney, what the hell?" Robin sighed. "This show has been sold out for months, and I am _not_ going to try and break in, or sneak through the backstage doors, or pretend to be a roadie, or whatever the hell else it is you have planned."

Barney had had a super-smooth deliver all planned out, in which he presented them with the tickets he'd managed to acquire and delivered a speech about how grateful they should all be for his awesomeness. But it all went out the door as soon as he caught sight of the dress Scherbatsky had poured herself into. He ended up pulling them wordlessly from the inside pocket of his suit jacket, hands fumbling with the envelope and nearly ripping it in the process. Lily inspected them eagerly.

"I can't _believe_ you got us into the All-American Rejects show!" she exclaimed. Ted made a face.

"I can't believe you got us into the _All-American Rejects_ show," he said. Marshall socked him in the arm, turning to Barney with a genuine smile.

"Thank you, Barney," he said, shooting Lily a self-satisfied smirk. She rolled her eyes. "Thank you for making this a great New Year's," he continued. Now it was Barney's turn to roll his eyes.

"Don't wet yourself, Erickson - they were a gift from an anonymous benefactor from work." His friends smiled and nodded as if they believed him.

**2 hours to midnight**

"Let's dance," Marshall suggested. Lily frowned.

"What?" she asked.

"I said let's dance!" he repeated, shouting to be heard over the persistent drumbeat from onstage. Lily tapped the side of her head and shrugged apologetically, indicating that she still couldn't hear him. With a grunt of frustration, Marshall finally reached out and grabbed her around the waist, yanking her towards him. Lily grinned, settling against his side as they swayed slowly.

"Is Barney still pretending like he didn't score us these tickets?" she asked. Marshall chuckled.

"Of course." Despite the fact that there was no one with as much money or bizarre amount of power as Barney that could possibly get them last-minute tickets to a sold-out New Year's Eve All-American Rejects concert, he still steadfastly refused to admit his involvement in the operation. The others knew how much he hated to be called out for being a good guy, lest it ruin his womanizing reputation (meaning, lest he admit that there was something else beneath the surface of said womanizing ways), so they were playing along. For now. It wasn't festive or family-friendly, but it was more fun than the five of them had had together in far too long of a time.

"Two hours 'till next year," she murmured in Marshall's ear. She felt his arms tightened around her.

"Wanna get a head start?" he responded. Lily pressed a swift kiss to the underside of his jaw and led him by the hand to the edge of the dance floor.

**1 hour to midnight**

The bartender didn't even bother to ask Ted what he wanted, just gave him a pointed look.

"Water," Ted said apologetically. The tall, beefy guy behind the counter rolled his eyes and made a show of carefully placing ice cubes in a tumbler and pouring water over them, then slid Ted the glass.

"Two dollars," he said. Ted gaped.

"Seriously?" he said. "For water?" The bartender rolled his eyes again.

"It's New Year's Eve, kid - nobody drinks for free." Ted grimaced, but handed over the cash. Beside him, a slender redhead slid into a vacated barstool.

"Playing it safe tonight?" she teased. Ted smiled and offered a toast of his water with her champagne.

"Trying not to have a repeat of last year," he admitted.

"That bad?"

"Worse," Ted assured her. "I went out with the same friend that I'm here with tonight. He's borderline psychotic and really, really good at talking people into things. Not a good combination." The redhead laughed. Ted smiled, encouraged. "I'm Ted, by the way," he said, offering his hand. She took it, shaking firmly.

"Well now you've got me intrigued," she said. "I'm Catherine. And now I'm very interested."

"In...the story?" Ted asked. Catherine winked.

"Well, that too." 

Oh, he owed Barney _so_ huge.

**3 minutes to midnight**

Barney appeared at her side just before the countdown begun; somehow Robin was far less than surprised.

"I'm not making out with you," she warned. Barney feigned indignance.

"Why Robin, I can't believe you think so little of me that you'd assume that all I wanted to do was make out with you." He said it jokingly, offhandedly, but there was something sad and angry stirring beneath his eyes that made Robin take pause.

"What do you want, then?" she said. The band finished up the final strains of "Dance Inside" and the lead singer, the kid with the scraggly hair and the creepily wide eyes, took over the microphone, announcing their approach to the new year. Barney floundered helplessly, his mouth gaping open then snapping shut again. Robin moved closer, both afraid and desperately curious to know his answer.

"You," he finally breathed. A slow smile spread across his face, his entire world eased by the fact that he had finally, _finally_ said it. "I want you," he rephrased, making sure there was no way she could possibly mistake the sentiment for anything other than what it was. "You are the most awesome chick _ever_ , and I want you so much. I lo-"

Robin cut him off before he could finish what she knew was coming next. She launched herself at him, wound her arms around his neck and kissed him fiercely. Barney wasted no time in returning the gesture. As he clutched her tighter, he heard the countdown finally begin. By the time they reached zero, Barney and Robin were too lost to care.

**4 minutes into 2009**

"Was I right or was I right?" Barney crowed. The others looked suspiciously between his half-undone tie and Robin's mussed hair, but then again Marshall and Lily were just as obvious, and Ted had a hickey beginning to form on his neck. He grinned hugely.

"Yeah," he admitted. Ignoring Barney's protests about his suit, Ted enfolded him in a hug. "You were totally right."

_Kids, I didn't meet your mother that night. In fact, after midnight, I lost Catherine in the crowd and never saw her again. Barney and Robin spent another six months bickering instead of admitting how they felt about each other, and Marshall and Lily narrowly escaped a public decency charge. But those are stories for another time, because none of them really matter. What matters is that Barney believed in our friendship so much that he just wanted us all to have a good night out. And that night, at a lame concert in a crowded stadium with overpriced drinks, we forgot why the past few weeks had sucked so much. We forgot that we were upset with each other, that we had ever fought to begin with. And we realized that New York would always, always be home._

There was only one word to describe that night, and I think you know what it is. 

 


End file.
